The
mobile phone world is growing quickly in the high-end with more and more mobile
users migrating to feature laden smartphones from feature phones and
entry-level devices. The average smartphone can often replace multiple devices
for some users thanks to digital convergence.

The latest
statistics in from Gartner show that smartphone sales are booming in
the market with a growth rate of 72% last year. The global market for mobile
phones of all types has blossomed to 1.6 billion units according to the
research firm. While Apple grabs much of the news with the iPhone smartphone,
the company is ranked as the fifth largest mobile phone firm in the world with
RIM coming in fourth place.

Gartner also reports that Android smartphones passed Symbian devices in sales
for Q4. Symbian is still listed as the best selling smartphone OS overall
according to Gartner thanks to the widespread use by other makers of phones
using the OS.

Nokia is
hurting badly and feeling the heat with new CEO Stephen Elop noting
that Nokia was standing on a "burning platform" referring to
MeeGo and conceding that Apple owned the high-end market with the iPhone in an
employee memo leaked today. Nokia is still the largest mobile phone vendor
according to Gartner's numbers, but it declined from 36.4% of the market in
2009 to 28.9% in 2010.

Carolina Milanese from Gartner said, "The decline [of Nokia] is not solely
attributable to Nokia’s continuing deficiency in high-end devices but is in
part the result of the growth of legitimate white-box sales."

Gartner also noted that about half the phones sold in Q4 in Europe and North
America were smartphones and that Android sales had increased by nine times.
Samsung Electronics is ranked second in the Gartner list and LG Electronics is
third. Both of these firms are selling a large number of Android devices.

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